The sun sets on 2011...

Here are some final photos from the last day of the year.  We had sun, hail, rain today all in a very short period of time.

The witch hazel is starting to show some of it's winter colour.

 They looked so delicate in the afternoon sun.

 Raindrops left over from the showers a few hours earlier clung to the beauty berries.

 They look so delicate and fragile.

 My winter wreath welcomes you to my home.

 One of the resident ducks just hanging out on the quay.

 What is that sea gull trying to do?  It is trying to steal the loon's dinner.

 He or she dove below the water to escape the gull and surfaced with this tasty bite.

 Winter flowering forsythia is starting to bloom.

 These bare branches put out a pretty delicate pink blossom.

 In my courtyard the roses are still putting out blooms.  White ones.

 Some pink.

 A red.

 Yet another red.

 As the sun sets on 2011 my wish is that you have a safe and healthy Happy New Year.

See you in 2012!

Fozzie and Sawyer are new friends. Fozzie is about 12 years old and Sawyer was about 12 1/2 weeks old when this picture was taken in May. Sawyer is a black Labrador who has a beautiful disposition.

This picture of Sawyer was taken in July when he was about 4 1/2 months old. My brother is trying to get a good pose for my picture.

He loves to go into his wading pool to retrieve toys and cool off. When they take him hiking he goes swimming in a local lake.

Sawyer has out grown Fozzie already! Fozzie is a miniature poodle, but still rules the roost.

Every year we have some ducks nest, I thought I'd missed the babies this year, but last night I heard them out with their mom. She spotted me on my balcony trying to get some pictures. She doubled back to collect the rest of her brood.

If you look closely you will see 7 ducklings up on the top and two below on the stairs. The two never did make it up to the top, everyone had to come down to join them.

They decided to head over to the pool.

We've had ducks nesting in our courtyard for at least 8 years.

First one and then the rest decided to jump into the pool.

Mom kept a watchful eye until everyone was in the water.

Then she jumped in and joined them for a swim. They headed over to the overhanging flowers and eventually slipped back into the garden to their nest.

The sky was blue and the birds were singing yesterday, Spring has made it's entrance here. This is a view looking up the Fraser river, there are 3 paddlewheelers in this picture. The tall bridge in the background is for the skytrain and beyond it the Patullo bridge. There were lots of people walking along the quay enjoying the warm sunny day.

I love how the sun caught the centres of these two pretty tulips.

This is a Dogwood in early bud, the flowers will turn a creamy white when they open a bit more.

The muscari [grape hyacinths] are almost overtaking the rose bushes.

I spotted the ladybug on this daffodil, the hyacinth is a gorgeous purple/blue

The sky was just an incredible blue and the apple blossoms looked so white against it.

There is a large pond near one of the condos, this duck was diving for a snack, there were also some large Koi swimming around. You could see their orange/white/black markings in the water as they swam about.

I love how these narcissi seems to have both yellow and orange petticoats on.

These ones are decked out in cream dresses with yellow petticoats, in the background you can see one with double yellow.

This cherry tree is in my courtyard. The bloosoms caught my eye as I walked by. They are blooming from the trunk!

This is looking up from below the same tree, the bloosoms almost look white, but you can see the pale pink.

Here is the view from my balcony towards the cherry trees and the river. The song birds are singing today, one is just outside my suite sitting on the gazebo roses. The cherry tree petals are starting to fall like snow on the lawn below.

Spring flowers are arriving daily! I went for breakfast with my friend Rita and then we took her two dogs for a walk along the quay. Here are some tulips that are similar to the original tulips when they were first introduced. I love how these English daisies seem to have developed an Afro with the moisture in the air. Did you notice the double centre on the one red and white blossom on the bottom?

The rhododendrons are blooming, I love their bud formations.

This is a blossom on the same plant, we had some snow yesterday and they would have looked lovely with the dusting.

The Muscari [Grape Hyacinths] are popping up all over the place!

I love the lovely lines the tulips have in their bud form. They look so graceful.

This group look like dad, mom and the children.

Several of the condos along the quay have water features, we have several duck families that come each year to nest. We have a pair that come to our pool to teach the young how to swim. At night you can hear them quacking and flying in to nest.

This is not our pair, but the picture below is the water feature of my condo. The little ducklings climb out of the pool and sun themselves on our brickwork around the pool on sunny days.

The cherry trees are bursting out in colour, and soon the maple will join the party. The heather is a soft purple and the St. John's Wort has been trimmed back, but the yellow blooms will be arriving soon.